In the Exhibitions and Events Industry there are few companies as large as the PennWell Corporation. Founded in 1910 and currently with over 60 conferences on six continents, PennWell continues to expand its audience through the use of new technologies. One of the people responsible for organizing these shows is MaryBeth DeWitt, Director of Operations for PennWell, who, amidst the many problems she encounters on a daily basis, faces the continuing challenge of deciding which technologies to invest in and utilize. For DeWitt, who describes her position as “enchancing our customers’ experience,” the technology decisions all rest on one key question: What technology will make PennWell’s customers most happy?
An area of debate in the Meetings and Tradeshow Industry concerns the role of a show’s website and how to best utilize online social media. Many show organizers continually seek the best technology vendors in order to take advantage of these marketing opportunities with varying levels of success.
Faced with these challenges, DeWitt ultimately choose to hire the Germany-based company New Generation Network (NGN) to handle most of PennWell’s shows’ online presence, with the key factor in her decision resting on NGN’s upfront pricing structure that easily informed her of what she was going to have to spend with no hidden fees or addendums.
DeWitt explains the need for PennWell’s shows to maintain an online presence and why she selected NGN above others, recalling, “About three years ago, in my role as Director of Operations, I just felt like we needed to be doing more to create an experience for our audience, both exhibitors and attendees. The show needs to be more than an annual three day event, so we started researching how to build and maintain an online community and also the networking and match-making tools that are integral for such a system to work. We looked at several vendors and decided upon NGN, who are based in Berlin, but who have since opened a US office. The reason I felt that they were the best solution for us was that we could quantify the cost up front and make money from day one. With the other companies we looked at, they could not give me a per exhibitor fee, or even just a flat fee -- it was always depending on what license you purchased or usage or other variables, and I do not do well that way. I need to know, worst case scenario, what my cost is going to be and I need people who can give me that. I can not do, ‘this is going to be your cost if this happens, or if this happens, or if this happens,’ because then you end up never really knowing what your cost is until the end of the show when you get your bill, which does not work for me. I need to know how much a technology is going to cost me at the beginning of the show, not at the end.”
In addition to adding new content to their shows’ websites, such as blogs, social media, and short videos, PennWell has started hosting Virtual Events to supplement some of their shows. At Virtual Events, exhibitors can set up their booths and have attendees, who might be scattered all over the world, come in and obtain information as well as attend conference sessions similar to webcasts. The communication between exhibitors, attendees, and speakers is analogous to that of instant messaging -- people can also join in group chats as well.
The benefits of the Virtual Events are that they are low cost, people can attend from anywhere with a computer and high speed internet connection, show organizers receive detailed reporting, and they are a resourceful way to keep people interested in the parent event. DeWitt states that while the Virtual Events are growing in popularity, “they will definitely in no way replace physical shows. They are just another way to create communities and social networks, which is what the huge initiative and drive should be – the goal should not be to put on a tradeshow for three days every year, but rather to keep the show’s audience engaged year round with updated blogs, videos, and Virtual Events, which are part of this initiative.”
In addition to their commitment to utilizing the latest technologies, PennWell’s success can also be attributable to DeWitt’s straight forward attitude toward her work, a primary goal of which is to accomplish tasks in the most efficient manner possible, even if it puts her in conflict with the vendors and contractors with whom she works. DeWitt explains, “I am one of those customers that pushes on a daily basis, which I noticed I started doing last year after working with our European general contractor on our international events. EMC has an online tool which allows a show organizer to go in and order absolutely everything for a show from any single vendor, all on one single platform and one single shopping cart. Instead of going to a general contractor for their services, then to a convention center’s website for another service, and then to a lead retrieval company for their services, I could find everything I need at AMC. We have used this tool for over ten years at our international shows and I thought why not take that ‘one stop shop’ idea and use it for our domestic shows as well. It didn’t quite work in the way I had expected though.
“During our request for proposal process, I had spoken to all of our general contractors in advance and told them what to expect: essentially, that they would need to streamline their business and their processes to become more customer-friendly. I pushed this implementation and initially got a major, major pushback. Ultimately, I forced them to understand that it is fine if they do not want to use my solution, but that they would need to come up with another one, because I am not okay with stepping backwards. Before you rebuff the solution that I have presented, you need to come to me with an alternative. Now, the general contractors understand that if they do not provide the technology, the show organizers are going to force it upon them to provide the technology, so it took a little push to change their mentality.”
DeWitt’s goal is to make the tradeshow experience more meaningful and less taxing on both the attendees and the exhibitors. She has been involved in promoting social media for PennWell’s shows and in getting general contractors to develop better business practices, both of which help make organizing and attending tradeshows more beneficial for everyone involved. DeWitt states, “On a strategic level, my role at PennWell is always about how to enhance our customers’ experience, so I am always pushing PennWell and our vendors to do more for our customers.” These are wise words to do business by, because if a company has no customers, it has no business.